top of page
FLORA
Tree's
Balsam Poplar
Alpine Fir
Lodgepole Pine
Engleman Spruce
White Bark Pine
Balsam poplar (Populus Balsamifera) can grow up to 20-30m tall. Its easily
identifiable by its leaves: they are a silvery green at the bottom and on the top a glossy green. Another way to identify them is there a ovoid shape witch looks like a large raindrop. Also the Balsam Poplars leaf buds can be used to create tea that is used as a wash to help soothe Inflammation
mussel pains as well as sprains.
Lodgepole pine (pinus contorta) is located in BC and the west side of Alberta. This tree can be identified by its trunk and needles: the trunk is a brown but can also sometimes have a orange tint, and the needles are in clusters towards the end of the branch. The resin from a Lodgepole Pine was used to waterproof canoes and served as a natural glue to the first nations people.
The Engleman Spruce (Picea Engelmanii) is a coniferous tree with needles that are blueish- green and a loose, scaly and grey bark. This tree tends to grow best in the winter with rich soils.
Fun Fact: Aboriginal people would peel, split and soak the roots to sew baskets and they built canoes/instruments with this wood as well.
The Alpine Fir (Abies Lasiocarpa) prefers to be directly in the sun in moist conditions with sandy soils, this tree can grow up to 70ft tall but grows slowly. in good conditions the alpine fir can live up to 80 years. The wood from this tree is sometimes used for building houses.
Limber Pine
The White Bark Pines (pinus albicaulis) needles are bluish-green, 3-9 centimeters long and bunch up at the end of the branch. The cones are egg shaped and when they decay the seeds get released and that's one of the ways this tree reproduces.
Fun Fact: Certain species of pine produce nuts that are in our diet. There usually cooked before eaten.
Limber pine (pinus flexillis)and white bark pine both relie on clarks nutcracker to reproduce- this bird east the seeds poos it out and that's how the limber pine and white bark pine spreads. this tree can reach 10 meters tall. its branches grow longer at the bottom and shorter at the top.the most obvious difference between limber pine and white bark pine is the limber pines cone are larger.
The Red Indian Paint Brush (Castilleja Miniata) is a bright red but sometimes can be orange or a dull pink. This is a dicot flower that can grow up to 1 foot. It blooms April-september.
Flowers
The Yellow Lady Slipper (Cypripedium Parviflorum) is a bright yellow orchid. It can grow up to 80 cm tall. This flower blooms from late may to mid June. You can find this in forests field and bogs.
The Saxifrage (Saxifraga Oppositifolia) are a star shape flower. Saxifrage means rock breaker because it crack the rock and grows in the crevasse that has been made. The Inuit used this flower far making dye and sometimes use it like a time device because when it blooms is when theres caribou- June to July.
Moss Campion (Silene Aculis) lives in the bc and rock mountains. This is a dicot flower with 5 pedals and pink cushion. It does its best in cool summers with moist soils.
The Calypso Orchid (Calypso Bulbosa) can be pink red purple and yellow with a purple stem. This plant is shape almost like a dragons head and can be found in Canada and the U.S. Aboriginal people used to eat the corm of this plant as a buttery treat but not often because when you take away the corm the whole flower dies. The corm is an organ.
Red Indian Paintbrush
Yellow Lady Slipper
Saxifrage
Moss Campion
Calypso Orchid
bottom of page